You really can’t count caddying, shagging balls, cleaning golf clubs and sweeping up the pro shop at Rolling Hills CC as real jobs. My first real job was working for Pizza Hut in Wichita. That is the home of Pizza Hut. There were two guys who founded Pizza Hut, Dan and Frank Carney. The day came for my interview for the job. I was sitting in the reception area and there was a big sign on the wall that said, I don’t care what the question is, the answer is NO!! To a 17 year-old kid, that was a pretty intimidating sign. Little did I know that it was just a little midwestern humor. Dan and Frank were two of the greatest guys I had ever met. They made me want to be part of Pizza Hut. They were really nice to me in the interview and I couldn’t wait to begin making pizzas. I think my interview was actually with Dan. I bought my first red checkered shirt and went through training. It was a blast. I liked the people I worked with, I loved the product and it became a huge part of my life. At the end of the summer, they came up with this home delivery thing. We rode Cushman scooters with a thing on the back to keep the pizzas warm and the Cushman had three wheels. It was easy to drive and we used two-way radios to keep in touch with “base”. Tony was the guy who ran the program. It seemed like a great idea. The problem was that several of the people taking pizzas to various places got mugged and had their bags of money stolen. In addition, I was making deliveries one night and was hit by a car. I never lost consciousness, but I had a huge gash in my forehead. It happened really fast and I didn’t see that car coming. Because of the muggings and a couple of accidents like mine the program died a quick death. Delivery would eventually happen many years later. The bummer about the accident was that I was entering Wichita State that September as a freshman and having this enormous bandage on my forehead really wasn’t a great look. I guess you could say that the look probably was one of the reasons that I was rejected during rush by the fraternities. Maybe if I had been in one of those fraternities, I would have rejected me too.
I want to go back to making pizzas. At that time, we rolled the dough by hand with rolling pins. We made pies like pies. We would roll out the dough then drape it over the pans, push it into the pan and take a kitchen knife and cut off the excess. We would build the pizzas in those pans. Put them into a 550 degree Blodgett oven and cook the pizzas. The other thing that was so smart about Pizza Hut was that there was virtually no waste. We used ground hamburger, ground sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, green peppers and anchovies. Mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce, parmesan and oregano. The only thing that ever went bad was onions and green peppers if we prepped too many. That was it on waste. We used all the dough, we ordered dough each night and they made the dough at the warehouse. Internally we would take turns working in the warehouse, making dough and filling orders for all the other stuff. The main controlling factor was a spice bag that we referred to as the “Goodie Bag”. Here is how that worked. Every time you made pizza sauce, you used a certain amount of tomato sauce and tomatoes, some water and one “Goodie Bag”. None of us knew what was actually in that bag. It was a very well-kept secret. They knew how much pizza you could get out of a batch of sauce so it was easy to know how much business each store was doing because of how many “Goodie Bags” they used. A few other things were unique. We had two sizes of pizzas, 10” and 13”. That is it. We had two ladles. One level large ladle was the correct amount of sauce for a large. The smaller ladle was the correct amount of sauce for the small. We used sliced mozzarella. 3 pieces for small and 5 pieces for large. Again, very simple. The other unique thing was we didn’t use pizza boxes. We had cardboard circles, a 10” and a 13”. We would take the pizza out of the oven. Cut it into 6 or 8 pieces depending on size and put the pizza on the circle. Put the circle in a bag and close the bag, there was a special way of doing this and staple the bag shut. You carried the pizza by the top of the bag. Beautiful. I became very good and very fast at bagging up pizza’s. It was a lot of fun and working the oven was more fun than just making pizzas. It was hard work, but you were doing it with guys that were fun to be around and we enjoyed the Pizza Hut experience. After work we would all end up at Kings X for a 5 Star breakfast.
I had many amazing experiences with Pizza Hut but there was one in particular that I want to share. I was working one Friday night at Bluff Street. This was the original Pizza Hut. The building is actually now on the Wichita State University Campus as a Pizza Hut Museum. At the time I worked there it was located behind Carney’s Market. It was really just an out building. So, I showed up for work around 3:30 and would be there until 1AM. Normally I would have a helper for a few hours to help prep and roll out some pizza crusts and put them in the pans. My helper never showed up which was not normal. At any rate I was stuck. I started rolling as many pizzas as I could. Friday night was always busy. I was pretty good and thought that even being by myself I could handle it. Remember at that time we were rolling dough with a rolling pin. So, the phone starts to ring and I get very busy. I am trying to keep my head above water. Things are going pretty well. Bluff Street only had 5 tables and by 7PM all of those tables were full. So, I am answering the phone, rolling dough, making pizzas, waiting on tables, seriously this was crazy. About 9PM there is a guy at the counter who was there to pick up his pizzas. He had ordered a couple. I finally get to him and just as I am finding out which pizza he is there to pick up, he falls down and has an epileptic seizure. I had seen these before and the main thing to do is keep him away from anything that he could hurt himself on. I kept working. Kept answering the phone, cooking pizzas, making pizzas, waiting on tables. In the middle of all of this activity the guy is on the floor and I am asking the people there to keep him from hurting himself. After a few minutes, the guy gets up and I sell him his pizzas, and he goes on his way. UNBELEIVABLE!! I will never forget that as long as I live. I was literally in the eye of the storm. I really didn’t know what to do but did get through it. As the people in the Pizza Hut finished their meals and left, they did comment on what had happened. I honestly didn’t know if I should have called 911 or do what I did. At the end of the day, no paramedic would have done any more than was done by keeping the guy from hurting himself. He got up and continued his evening. It is amazing to look back and realize all of the things that could have happened, could have gone wrong. I could have panicked. I guess it was good that I had experienced gran mall seizures before that evening and maybe that helped me get through it. I eventually made it through the night. Closed up and met my friends for breakfast and shared this amazing event with them. Other than solving the world’s problems we acknowledged how lucky I was that nothing bad happened. I don’t know if Dan or Frank ever knew about that incident. Probably just as well if they didn’t.
If you ever visit the Bluff Street building on the WSU Campus, think about that Friday night when not even an epileptic seizure kept me from making, cooking, bagging and selling Pizza Hut Pizzas on that night. We all have experienced some crazy stuff in our lives. I am sure you have stories that you could share as well.
